Poms are dodgy

The Tale of Councillor Sprason, a cautionary fable for our times, is about as far from Beatrix Potter as you can get. It appears that David Sprason, the middle-aged deputy leader of Leicestershire County Council, was settling down with Mrs Sprason to an evening of watching a hardcore porn DVD called She Likes It Rough when their home DVD player malfunctioned. They duly viewed it on Mr Sprason’s work laptop, where it accidentally remained until the computer crashed and he took it in to be repaired, whereupon the IT workers got quite a surprise.

The council’s “monitoring officer” sent the disc off to the police, who concluded that no criminal offence had been committed, and that was the end of it, until someone leaked the letter recently to the local press. Mr Sprason argued that it was one of the “tools” he and his wife used in their relationship: “I’m not embarrassed. There’s nothing dodgy about it.” Meanwhile, the council leader, Nick Rushton, has now launched a fresh “investigation”: the Tory group chief whip will report back by Christmas Eve, and Mr Sprason has temporarily stood aside.